News brief
The September 28–30 programme examines images, authority and religious imagination across traditions. A programme establishes the questions being studied, not the answers.
The University of Erfurt’s programme for God, Human, Machine places AI-generated religious imagery at the center of a conference scheduled for September 28–30, 2026. Its agenda includes image creators, scholars and discussions of how visual media influence religious imagination. Topics span Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Jewish and other religious contexts. The source is the organizer’s programme, not our observation of the proceedings.
Tuesday’s schedule includes religious authority in online imagery, a discussion associated with The Jewish Dataset, and immersive demonstrations. Wednesday’s programme includes images of paradise and hell and AI in accounts of religious futures. These entries establish the subjects proposed for discussion. They do not establish agreement among speakers or demonstrate how audiences respond.
A realistic scene can invite viewers to believe that someone witnessed an event. In a religious setting, that impression may concern a miracle, an apparition, a historical encounter or a contemporary act of worship. The ethical question is not exhausted by whether the picture is beautiful. Readers need to know whether it depicts documented events, reconstructs a historical possibility, or imagines something that never happened.
For an educator, a useful exercise is to ask students to describe what an image appears to prove before revealing its provenance. Then compare that initial impression with the evidence available. This is a proposed teaching method, not a result reported from Erfurt. It draws attention to the distance between visual confidence and historical knowledge.
Christian art has room for imagination, but imaginative devotion and factual testimony have different responsibilities. A scene made for reflection should not acquire the authority of eyewitness evidence merely because its lighting and faces look photographic. In Ephesians 4:25, truthful speech belongs to a community whose members are responsible to one another. That principle can inform visual communication as well as words. Ephesians 4:25 (NIV)
Different religious communities also disagree about sacred representation. A Christian publication should explain those differences carefully rather than assume one rule governs everyone. The immediate value of this conference programme is the range of questions it makes visible. Any later report of findings should identify the actual paper, speaker or recording and preserve the distinction between an individual argument and a tradition’s teaching.
University of Erfurt: God, Human, Machine conference programme
Based on the university’s published programme. No attendance, delivered remarks or conference findings are claimed. September 28–30 are scheduled event dates; the page’s publication date is not specified.
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